For as long as trailers and pickup trucks have existed, there has been some sort of tailgate which is more or less permanently affixed to the trailer or pickup bed. In recent years it has become popular to purchase a bedliner which usually includes a tailgate protection portion. This bedliner has the purpose of protecting the sidewalls of the pickup or trailer bed from dings and dents which are caused when a sharp corner or blunt edge of the cargo collides with the sidewall or tailgate. This bedliner in turn protects the cargo from reciprocal damage by the side-walls and has certain aesthetic appeal to the user as well.
Since time immemorial there has been a need in the carpentry trade for a means of fixturing lumber or other construction materials so that it can be conveniently or accurately cut to length. As anyone who has attempted to cut lumber using his body weight and kneecap will attest, lumber tends to slip and slide in the direction of the cut if not properly restrained during the sawing operation. Using the kneecap approach, an inaccurate, unattractive and possible unsatisfactory cut is likely to result together with a scrape or bruise on the knee. This approach often requires awkward balancing or an additional person to hold material. Of course, this could have been avoided if the lumber were properly fixtured in some sort of restraint means. Commonly, a bench vice is employed for this purpose, particularly when the lumber is to be cut using a handsaw. However, a bench vice tends to be bulky, heavy and cumbersome to relocate. Therefore it is usually more or less permanently affixed to a work bench at the carpenter's shop or work shed. This means that it will not be available at the remote work site unless extra efforts are taken to relocate the vice from the shop workbench to some other worktable at the work site. Fixturing devices are available which are considered more or less portable. An example of such a fixturing device is the Black & Decker "WORKMATE", a collapsible worktable that has built-in fixturing jaws. Although the "WORKMATE" is more or less portable, its design is not conducive to permanent attachment to a tailgate thereby necessitating advance planning should it be required at a particular remote location. In addition, it's usefulness for its purpose depends largely on whether or not a flat, level and relatively immobile floor is available at the remote location. Such a floor is not always available at a remote work site.
For as long as carpenters and home handy-men have been around, they have been misplacing their measuring devices, whether they be tape measures, rulers or yardsticks. Professionals are more likely to keep their measuring devices handy--home handymen are less likely to do so. If a measuring device is not readily available or has been temporarily misplaced, both tradesmen and the handymen are likely to buy a new one rather than delay their project until the previously purchased scale is discovered. Eventually, they will have learned to keep the scale in a predictable location or will have purchased enough so that they are likely to find one when necessary--this may however necessitate the purchase of several measuring devices thereby the incurring unnecessary costs.
Since trailers and pickups are mobile and jigs, vices and fixtures which are usually used in the carpentry trade or for do-it-yourself uses are often bulky and relatively immobile, it is apparent that the situation will arise where the carpenter or home-handyman will be away from his shop equipment, in the remote location to which he is hauling lumber or some other construction material which will ultimately require measuring, marking, cutting or sawing.
A need therefore exists for a fixturing device/miter/scale combination that is permanently located at a place where it is likely to be used and which is attached to the pickup or trailer such that it will be transported to the work site without necessitating any additional thought or planning by the handyman or carpenter.